Eleven NBA championships as a head coach?
Check.
Two NBA titles as a player?
Check.
Stainless legacy?
Check.
A fat $60 million contract to run the New York Knicks?
Check.
Supportive fiancee?
Check again.
Knicks president Phil Jackson really does have it all. His fiancee Jeanie Buss has seemed nothing but supportive of him in the past, and that apparently hasn’t changed. According to The Knicks Blog’s Adam Zagoria, she tried to get the Zen Master to coach the team ahead of his decision to ax Mike Woodson:
“Well, Jeanie Buss was here with the Board of Governors last week and stayed through the weekend and tried to encourage me to coach the team,” Jackson, the Knicks President, said Wednesday during his meeting with the media. “If there’s anyone who can encourage me to do anything, it’s Jeanie Buss. But I was able to withstand her arguments the whole time.”
At least she tried.
It’s common knowledge that Jackson prefers front office gigs these days. He was in the market for one for a while before joining forces with the Knicks and owner James Dolan. The closest he’s come to coaching since “retiring” in 2011 was last season, when we’re all pretty sure he would have accepted the reins to the Los Angeles Lakers had they not rolled with Mike D’Antoni.
During Jackson’s introductory press conference last month, it was also confirmed that Dolan tried to get him to coach the team. He wasn’t interested and the pair moved on from there.
But plenty of people—select Knicks fans in particular—have been holding out hope he would return to the sidelines. With Mike Woodson fired before he was even really fired, it just made so much sense.
Control the team from top to bottom, Phil. Make it your own. Take it over, Creative Artists Agency style, sans the whole signing J.R. Smith’s brother and aiding in the demise of a once-respectable franchise thing.
Was Jeanie serious, though? Did she actually want her 68-year-old hubby—who is already working with a team 3,000 miles east of Los Angeles—pulling double duty?
Per Zagoria, yes, she apparently was serious:
Asked if Buss was serious about the suggestion, Jackson, who won 11 NBA titles as a coach with the Bulls and Lakers, said she was because it was a “lower risk” option for the team given his overwhelming success.
“For me, yeah,” he said. “Do what you know best type of thing.”
Does that mean Jackson might consider it at some point?
Don’t hold your breath.
Or bet on it.
“No, I’ve made up my mind on that,” Jackson said, via Zagoria. “Willful in that regard. Right now I know physically what I can do. That’s something I don’t think physically that I can do.”
Too bad, really. Knowing Jackson and his 11 championships worth of head coaching experience were meandering up and down New York’s sidelines might have been just the incentive Carmelo Anthony needed not to make a spectacle and to-do over his impending free agency.
Oh well, New York. There’s always Steve Kerr. Or Derek Fisher.
Or the prospect of bribing Jeanie to employ other powers of persuasion—mashed potato Thursdays at the ol’ Buss-Jackson compound might be a good start—aimed at convincing Jackson to return to where the Knicks seemingly need him most.
Dan Favale is a firm believer in the three-pointer as well as the notion that defense doesn’t always win championships. His musings can be found at Bleacherreport.com in addition to TheHoopDoctors.com. Follow @danfavale on Twitter for his latest posts and all things NBA.
